Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

University students feel significantly more anxious than the rest of the nation, with female undergraduates reporting the highest levels of worry, according to new data.

Across all years students are 10 per cent more likely to have higher anxiety levels than the general population, with 30 per cent of them reporting “high anxiety” out of a sample base of 15,000.

Only 19 per cent of the nation responded to the question “how anxious were you yesterday, on a scale of one to 10?” with a similarly high score when tested by the Office for National Statistics last year.

Anxiety at its worst can stop people from being able to concentrateNicky Lidbetter, chief executive of mental health charity Anxiety UK

And while 40 per cent of the nation report occasional low anxiety, only 21 per cent of students do, otherwise clustering themselves towards the top end of the anxiety scale, according to the report from the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy.

Well-being

Nicky Lidbetter, chief executive of mental health charity Anxiety UK, said being away from home, a competitive job market and incessant social media all had a strong impact on a student’s well-being.

“Anxiety at its worst can stop people from being able to concentrate, feel restless and have racing thoughts. It can definitely have an impact on exam grades and performance,” she told the Daily Telegraph.

“And if students don’t have anxiety treated and it becomes entrenched, it can lead to secondary depression, because young people get so down about how they’re feeling.”

Male students also tended to report lower anxiety than female students, who rated themselves as more anxious, while both genders reported similar levels of knowledge about how to access counselling services.

Greater workload and higher wellbeing were also linked – indicating higher satisfaction with a busy course – but once work hours exceeded 50 a week, students’ well-being decreased thereafter.